Another quarterly free update has arrived right on time for Gears 5, with The Coalition today pushing out Operation 3: Gridiron to all players on Xbox One, Windows 10, Steam, and Xbox Game Pass. The update brings back several well-known characters from the long-running franchise, introduces a brand new game mode, several new maps, and much more.

The four new multiplayer character drops in this update are Augustus "Cole Train" Cole, Clayton Carmine, Queen Myrrah, and Theron Guard. The two COG characters are available in Versus, Horde, and Escape modes, but the latter two are only playable in Versus.

Meanwhile, the new game mode that the entire update is named after, Gridiron, is a hardcore, single-life, objective-based mode that has two teams trying to rush a flag over to the opponent's "endzone" to score points. See the above trailer to catch a glimpse at the new characters and the rapid Gridiron mode in play.

As for maps, Operation Gridiron brings along the classic Gears of War map Canals as well as the brand new Pahanu map, which offers a jungle landscape to fight in with "organic cover, strong flanks, intimidating rifle positions and position-obscuring fauna." Moreover, Arena and Annex have arrived as two new 2 versus 2 maps. The developer added that it's working on more Versus and Horde maps for future updates.

Other additions in this update include 32 new achievements with retroactive tracking, a new Barracks tileset for Escape, a new set of rewards in the Tour of Duty with an additional objective slot, halved XP needed for unlocking characters, and more. Head over here to get a rundown of the features included in this massive update, while complete patch notes can be found here.